![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ee71cb37d4c9fcd432bc0a75a0130cfa154694ad.png\")
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April 21, 2026 \u2014 7:45pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Dean Young\u2019s first thought upon being made the Dragons\u2019 interim head coach was for his loved ones. His second was for the club\u2019s talented rookie halfback.<\/p>\n \u201cI went home to tell my wife to buckle up,\u201d the 42-year-old said.<\/p>\n \u201cI apologised to my three kids about what\u2019s going to happen next, and then I got into the car and drove over to Kade Reed\u2019s house and told him that he\u2019s about to make his debut.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not Young\u2019s first time in charge of the club where he played his entire career. He had six games as caretaker coach in 2020 after Paul McGregor was sacked, winning two of them.<\/p>\n But he has assumed control again with the joint-venture operation at their lowest ebb after seven consecutive defeats to start the season and 11 losses in a row all up.<\/p>\n As a player Young experienced the best of times at St George Illawarra, revelling in the glory of their drought-breaking 2010 premiership. As a coach at the Dragons, he\u2019s seen the worst of them.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one knows the club like me. I was a ball boy when I was five years old at the club,\u201d said Young, whose father Craig is a Dragons legend and grand final-winning captain.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been here for 10 years as a player. I\u2019ve been here multiple times, as an assistant coach.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got strong views on where the club\u2019s at, where it needs to go, and how it needs to get to where it needs to go, but those conversations are pointless at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The immediate task, according to Young, is to restore the confidence of the Dragons to the level it appeared to be at in their first outing of the season in Las Vegas, when they pushed Canterbury to the limit, before losing in golden-point extra-time.<\/p>\n From there, the wheels fell off, ending the tenure of Shane Flanagan.<\/p>\n A day after Flanagan\u2019s departure was confirmed, the Dragons board met for four hours at the Bruce Gordon Centre, the club\u2019s new headquarters named after their billionaire half-owner.<\/p>\n Board members emerged without comment but CEO Tim Watsford said he was determined to restore pride at the famous club and declared local juniors wouldn\u2019t be lost to the Dragons under his watch.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate losing … getting booed by the crowd [at] Kogarah is heartbreaking,\u201d Watsford said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what our fans deserve. We\u2019re here to take accountability for that and move forward. It\u2019s eyes forward \u2013 we\u2019ve got a bloke in here that can do the job and he\u2019s going to do it well and we\u2019re really confident of what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n Young has already put his stamp on the side selection wise, relegating Flanagan\u2019s son Kyle to the bench to give 20-year-old Reed his opportunity against the Sydney Roosters on Anzac Day.<\/p>\n But wary of placing too much pressure on the newcomer, he made clear the emerging playmaker was not the panacea to the Dragons\u2019 problems.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need change \u2026 where we\u2019re going isn\u2019t getting us to where we want to go,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe\u2019re getting the same results each week, we\u2019re leading games and then not getting it done and we need a bit of a circuit breaker. I know Kade will do a good job, but Kade Reed is not the saviour of this club.\u201d<\/p>\n Young will effectively be auditioning for the permanent Dragons head coaching role for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n He\u2019s got an almighty assignment ahead of him but having waited in the wings as an assistant coach with the North Queensland Cowboys and the NSW State of Origin team as well as at the Dragons, he was not about to shy away from it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I taking on this challenge?\u201d he said. \u201cWell, there are a couple of reasons. I\u2019m doing it for the players. I\u2019ve known a lot of these players for a long period of time and they need support and I feel like I\u2019m the best person to give them that support.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other part of it is obviously showing my three kids that in life there is going to be big challenges they\u2019ve got to face … they\u2019re going to see their dad walk towards a challenge and hopefully they\u2019ll walk towards the challenges they have.\u201d<\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Dean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9d9ebb2dcf0a1f4f8bc1c0823e86fc84addc0f8e.jpeg\")
Dean Young will take charge of the Dragons for the rest of the season.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Kade](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e5f2c4dff33932e36b454e8feff9c1a74e0fff30a7f6e5f923cc20e0c2dc2f7e.jpeg\")
Kade Reed will make his NRL debut this weekend.NR Images<\/p>\n![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/65ae2b15c53ef97729ebbf89fc7cb61064ed396d.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769322851_66_ee71cb37d4c9fcd432bc0a75a0130cfa154694ad.png\")
Chris Barrett<\/a> is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 21, 2026 \u2014 7:45pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-621911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}